Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's credibility just went directly down the toilet

it's funny how a well-written, highly articulate, passionately-written, filthy smear can thoroughly trash my impression of someone...

it's long, so i'll just give you the bottom line... i don't want to excerpt any more than i have to...

It is hard to discern whether Senator Obama is a man of principle, but it is clear that he is not a man of substance. And that judgment, based on his hollow record, is inescapable.

disgusting...

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Iranian nuclear weapons are today's Iraq WMD's

from think progress...

In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.”

and anyone would be in the least bit surprised by this because...? the threat of iran obtaining or manufacturing a nuclear weapon is in precisely the same category as saddam's wmd... our country's movers and shakers are totally committed to a state of endless war, regardless of the country or the area of the world, as long as it provides the opportunity to keep the rivers of cash flowing into the "right" pockets (apologies for the bad pun), to extend their power and global hegemony, and to monopolize the world's resources... iranian nuclear weapons are today's convenient smokescreen, cleverly designed to distract from their real motivations, and to keep the peasantry quivering in our boots, at least when we're not buying lottery tickets and hoping to strike it rich... we are one pathetic bunch of citizens...

[UPDATE]

i would be guilty of a glaring omission if i didn't mention that valerie plame's role with iran was first reported by larisa alexandrovna at raw story on february 13, 2006... larisa has been on top of a number of things, often WAY before the rest of the so-called responsible and serious traditional media... click on over to larisa's weblog, at largely, and show her some love...

congrats, larisa...

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A reminder of why Scooter's sentence was not "excessive"

thanks to the liberal doomsayer, who offers us this reminder of just exactly what was behind scooter libby's conviction and why bush's decision yesterday is such a blatant mis-use of presidential power...

(note: the good stuff starts at 4:55...)

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What if? What if Libby isn't pardoned? What if Libby goes to jail? What if Libby talks?

robert parry poses some very interesting what ifs...

[I]f U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton orders Libby to start his jail term in July while his appeals proceed – as it now appears the judge will – Bush will be faced with the prospect of Libby serving more than half his sentence before November 2008 and a risk that Libby finally might cooperate with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

If Libby, who was Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, were to start talking, he could explain the full role of Bush and Cheney in orchestrating the smear campaign against Iraq War critic Joseph Wilson, which set the stage for Libby and other administration officials to leak the identity of Wilson’s wife, covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, in summer 2003.

Libby also had a front-row seat to the White House cover-up that followed the revelation in September 2003 that the CIA had sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department, complaining about the security breach and prompting the start of a formal investigation.

The evidence from Libby’s trial makes clear that Bush and Cheney had authorized a media campaign to discredit former U.S. Ambassador Wilson, who undertook a CIA fact-finding trip to Niger in 2002 and accused the White House in July 2003 of “twisting” intelligence about Iraq’s alleged pursuit of uranium in Africa to justify going to war.

At minimum, the evidence shows that Bush selectively declassified parts of a National Intelligence Estimate to undercut Wilson, and Cheney ordered Libby to share the information with friendly reporters.

and...? and...? go on... i'm all ears...

From the start, Bush and Cheney appear to have sensed that they could make the cover-up work if they transformed it into a political spat. To a great extent, they have been proven correct in that assumption.

Now, their last remaining Plamegate concern is that “Scooter” Libby might calculate that he stands a better chance of reducing his time in jail if he tells the whole story rather than trust that his loyal silence will be rewarded by a pardon from a thankful President Bush.

as molly ivins - rest her dear soul - used to say, i'm serious as a heart attack... i would give the left portion of an important part of my anatomy if scooter would sing like a canary, and bring down the whole filthy mess right on top of george and dick... nothing, and i mean NOTHING, would give me greater satisfaction than to see those two driven from office in disgrace so we could get about putting things in the united states to rights... bastards...

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Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst, boo-hooing over Scooter

i'm watching cnn pipeline and jeffrey toobin, cnn's "legal analyst" is practically in tears over scooter's sentence... "small children," "not indpendently wealthy," "two and a half years is a REALLY long time"... c'mon... get real... what about scooter's "legal defense fund"...? surely, THESE people can help insure that scooter doesn't end up pushing a shopping cart down k street... besides, the charges are very serious... perjury and obstruction of justice related to an investigation of OUTING a covert cia agent isn't exactly a shoplifting conviction...

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Judge Walton sticks Scooter with 30 months and a $250K fine

good... and walton makes a key point...

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.

"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said.

[...]

Walton fined Libby $250,000 and placed him on probation for two years following his release from prison. Walton did not immediately address whether Libby could remain free pending appeal.

mmmm-hmmmmm... "overwhelming evidence"... "special obligation"... "not do anything that might create a problem"... well, i hope libby's still feeling good about taking the fall for darth...

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Are there any consequences at all for the White House Press Secretary to tell outright lies?

no...

greenwald...

In February of this year, Tony Snow chatted with Bill O'Reilly and said this (h/t Zack):

Very quickly -- very quickly, you got this Valerie Plame case. Now, it turns out that [special counsel] Peter (sic: Patrick) Fitzgerald doesn't -- can't even identify any harm. She wasn't a covert agent. She wasn't compromised. . . She wasn't covert anymore.

Are there any consequences at all for the White House Press Secertary to tell outright lies like that? Does that prompt any media scandals? Why can Tony Snow say with impunity that Plame "wasn't a covert agent" when their own CIA confirms that she was?

this is only another reminder, as if we needed any, that the bush administration and its sycophants will say whatever they believe is necessary to maintain the wall of protection around the presidency... they have lenin's strategy down to a fine art...

"This administration, I've never seen an organization that learned the lessons of Lenin as clearly as these guys," said Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) ... . "These guys must tack up Lenin's philosophy on their bedstand every night. Particularly when Lenin suggested if you say something often enough, with enough conviction, everybody will believe it."

greenwald continues...

Many people who listen to right-wing commentators such as these get their "news" about the world primarily, even exclusively, from these sources. And these sources, knowing that, routinely create their own self-affirming though wildly warped realities, in the process denying the most established facts or asserting propositions for which there is no factual basis.

[...]

But, as they so often do, they [make] them anyway, because those statements [help] to defend the Leader and bolster their political agenda. Most of all, they know that their readers will trust what they say even when those statements are demonstrably false.

and it works quite well, doesn't it...?

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Libby's lies threw Fitz off Cheney's trail

which was undoubtedly the whole idea...

according to froomkin...

Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame until that line of investigation was cut off by the repeated lies from Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

[...]

Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."

It was established at trial that it was Cheney himself who first told Libby about Plame's identity as a CIA agent, in the course of complaining about criticisms of the administration's run-up to war leveled by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. And, as Fitzgerald notes: "The evidence at trial further established that when the investigation began, Mr. Libby kept the Vice President apprised of his shifting accounts of how he claimed to have learned about Ms. Wilson's CIA employment."

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President."

in case that didn't quite sink in, froomkin goes on...

Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: "To accept the argument that Mr. Libby's prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President."

[Froomkin added italics and I changed them to boldface]

got it...? i thought you might...

(thanks to jlfinch at daily kos...)

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Darth Cheney: the staggering, unbelievable, unmatched arrogance of power

holy shit...

Attorneys for Cheney and the other officials said any conversations they had about Plame with each other and reporters were part of their normal job duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate "policy dispute." Cheney's attorney went farther, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role, and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.

"So you're arguing there is nothing -- absolutely nothing - these officials could have said to reporters that would have been beyond the scope of their employment [whether it was] true or false?," U.S. District Judge John D. Bates asked.

"That's true, your honor. Mr. Wilson was criticizing government policy," said Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's civil division. "These officials were responding to that criticism."

< picks jaw up off the floor > holy shit...

(thanks to TPMmuckraker...)

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10 Steps to shutting down a democracy

naomi wolf, writing in the guardian...

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy [islam, war on terror, al qaeda]

2. Create a gulag [Guantánamo, CIA black sites, military tribunals, Military Commissions Act, suspension of habeas]

3. Develop a thug caste [Blackwater, security contractors who are immune from prosecution in Iraq]

4. Set up an internal surveillance system [the Patriot Act, warrantless domestic wiretapping]

5. Harass citizens' groups [conduct surveillance on environmental, anti-war, animal rights, and other activist groups]

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release ["no-fly" list, "terrorist watch" list]

7. Target key individuals [Sibel Edmonds, Richard Clarke, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean]

8. Control the press [criminal complaint against Greg Palast, attacking al Jazeera, firing on unembedded reporters in Iraq, Fox News, O'Reilly, Limbaugh]

9. Dissent equals treason [accusations against Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, the New York Times, open-ended definition of "enemy combatant"]

10. Suspend the rule of law [John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, possibility of the declaration of federal martial law]

this is an extraordinary article which, unfortunately, comes to us from across the pond... it's the kind of in-depth journalism that we are so desperately lacking here in the united states...

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Dear Patrick Fitzgerald

day or night, awake or asleep, hunt me down and let me know what his answer is...

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Washington-based legal watchdog organization, has called on Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to re-open an investigation into White House adviser Karl Rove's role in the identity leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.

"It looks like Karl Rove may well have destroyed evidence that implicated him in the White House's orchestrated efforts to leak Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity to the press in retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director.

this little wisp of a connection has been floating around for the last couple of days, since the "amazing disappearing emails" story broke... fitz may think he got 'em all, but i betcha serious money he's thinking twice now...

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How about accountability for the WaPo?

hillary isn't the only one that needs to apologize and sampson isn't the only one that needs to walk the plank...

In a normal world, a newspaper would praise Joe Wilson for his dedication and patriotism – both for undertaking the CIA mission and blowing the whistle on the President’s abuse of intelligence to lead the nation to war.

A newspaper also might be expected to demand stern accountability from the Bush administration for not only damaging national security by exposing Valerie Plame’s identity but for then misleading the public and mounting a cover-up of the facts.

To this day – closing in on four years since the White House started its anti-Wilson campaign – political adviser Karl Rove retains his security clearance and neither Bush nor Cheney have issued an apology to the Wilson-Plame family or to the country for damaging an important national security operation.

But the [Washington Post] editorial board can’t seem to get past its own gullibility in buying into the administration’s bogus WMD claims in 2002-03. Rather than apologize for enabling Bush and Cheney to lead the nation into a disastrous war, Hiatt and his boss, Washington Post publisher Donald Graham, apparently think they can ignore their responsibility to the readers and to the nation.

That immunity – and hubris – should end with, at minimum, the firing of Fred Hiatt.

media complicity in an illegal war is, at minimum, aiding and abetting...

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She's lucky she hasn't been assassinated

until you've spent time walking the streets of another country, particularly a country in the developing world, you have no idea what it feels like to be truly exposed and vulnerable... it's not like you aren't exposed and vulnerable when you're in the u.s., but at least you can rely on a semblance of law and order and, hopefully, until bush and his buddies wipe it out completely, due process... but in a foreign country, you're pretty much on your own, and whatever happens, happens... you're basically SOL...

"I was a covert officer for the CIA," Plame said, until her cover was blown in a July of 2003 article by conservative columnist Robert Novak. Plame testified that her "career path was terminated prematurely" due to the revelation, because she could no longer do the work that she was trained to do, such as traveling overseas.

Plame said that her "name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department."

"Politics and ideology must be stripped from our intelligence services," Plame said, after accusing Bush Administration officials of releasing personal information about her deliberately in order to damage the credibility of her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson. "The harm that is done when a CIA cover is blown is great," Plame added.

Plame said that she was "surprised at how carelessly" White House officials had acted in regards to her cover, and said that her exposure left her feeling like she was "hit in the gut"

"They should have been diligent in protecting me and every CIA officer," Plame testified.

i would surmise that valerie's opportunities to enjoy vacations outside the u.s. are now about nil...

naturally, we have fox doing its level best to spin and discredit testimony given under oath...

During its coverage of the hearing, Fox News Channel cut down the sound to feature commentary by Novak who labeled Plame's contention that she was a "covert operator" as "absurd." Novak also brought up Plame's political contributions to the Democratic Party, to imply that she was partisan.

novak really ought to look into cryogenic preservation... if he could be brought back in 50 or 60 years, he would be a genuine fossil, and the subject of much public interest... right now, he's just another senile, empty suit...

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Patrick Fitzgerald's ethics

fitz is such an impressive guy... it's entirely the right thing to do to turn down a request to testify...

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has turned down requests from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify on the Valerie Plame leak case. Fitzgerald said he did “not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer opinions…about the ultimate responsibility of senior White House officials for the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity.”

i trust, however, he would have no qualms about turning over "sealed vs. sealed..."

(thanks to think progress...)

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"A cottage industry of patriotic truth tellers"

ray mcgovern, posting on consortium news, offers up a perspective that trashing joseph wilson and outing valerie plame was the act of a desperate man who could not allow the cia to gain credibility by negating his prize rationale for pushing the illegal iraq war...

Cheney clearly felt that something had to be done - anything. It seems a mark of desperation that this is the best they could come up with. They may have concluded that launching a hardknuckle campaign against Wilson might at least deter others from becoming patriotic truth tellers of the kind Joseph Wilson has modeled so well.

Initially, this tactic succeeded. More recently a cottage industry of patriotic truth tellers has taken shape, and (surprise, surprise!) even some among the mainstream media have given them ink and air time.

the truth is still trickling out... each day, there's a little bit more... i am patiently waiting for the floodgates to open...

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Robert Parry surveys the Libby case

in an excellent overview, consortium news' robert parry captures the essence of the cheney and rove-driven, bush administration approach to wielding power...

If the panorama [of the Libby case] could be viewed all at once, the American people would see an administration that, in summer 2003, felt it could pretty much do whatever it wanted to anyone. Bush's inner circle validated every cliche about the arrogance of power, particularly the old saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely.

[...]

Dirtying up one’s opponents was the name of the game, just like during political campaigns. “Controversialize” your enemies so the public won’t take them seriously. Turn them into laughingstocks. Make them look self-interested and maybe crazy.

that pretty much says it, doesn't it...? 6+ years of an out-of-control presidential administration, bent on reshaping the united states into their own personal fiefdom...

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"If you're looking at legacy..."

but, if you're looking at accountability...? if you're looking at ethics...? if you're looking at criminal offense...?

"This has been a huge cloud over the White House," said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist close to the Bush team. "It caused a lot of intellectual, emotional and political energy to be expended when it should have been expended on the agenda. They're never going to fully recover from this. If you're looking at legacy, this episode gets prominently mentioned in every recap of the Bush administration, much like Iran-contra and Monica Lewinsky."

what the libby case revealed as much or more than anything else, was how much "intellectual, emotional and political energy" was expended on trying to smear your critics to protect yourselves from having the lies you told from being exposed...

of course, leave it to cheney's vicious she-wolf, mary matalin, to put things in their proper context, namely, that the clinton administration was worse...

"Scooter didn't do anything," said former Cheney counselor Mary Matalin. "And his personal record and service are impeccable. How do you make sense of a system where a security principal [former Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. Berger] admits to stuffing classified docs in his pants and says, 'I'm sorry,' and a guy who is rebutting a demonstrable partisan liar is going through this madness?"

i just love the way she characterizes joseph wilson as a "demonstrable partisan liar" and the act of smearing him and outing his covert CIA operative wife as mere "rebuttal..."

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Jury tampering at the WaPo - a media disgrace

what an f****** disgrace... at least they could be a little less obvious about it...

Shame on the Washington Post, Again

By Robert Parry
February 19, 2007

Just days before the perjury/obstruction trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby goes to the jury, the Washington Post’s Outlook section published a bizarre front-page article by right-wing legal expert Victoria Toensing suggesting that the prosecutor and one of the chief victims in the case should be put on trial.

Beyond the absurdity – and dishonesty – of Toensing’s arguments, the Post illustrated the article with fabricated “mug shots” of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq War critic whose undercover CIA wife, Valerie Plame, was outed by the Bush administration.

In this lead opinion article for Washington’s biggest-circulation newspaper, Toensing, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, cites Fitzgerald, Wilson and several other targets in proposed “indictments,” each of which begins: “This Grand Jury Charges …”

Given the Post’s prominence in the nation’s capital and Toensing’s former position in the Justice Department, the article has the look and feel of an attempt to influence the jury that will be judging whether Libby committed perjury and obstruction of justice.

brent budowsky, posting over at larry johnson's no quarter blog, shares robert parry's perspective, in even stronger terms...

Brent Budowsky: Dear Editor, Washington Post

From Brent Budowsky
February 18, 2007
To: Robert Kaiser, Washington Post

Mr. Kaiser, I am forwarding below the note I wrote to Messrs. Graham and Hiatt about Outlook's Victoria Toensing piece today.

With all due respect, I have long admired your work, but that piece today was the most egregious attempt at jury tampering that I have ever seen in this or any other town.

[...]

As Ms. Toensing knows, the content of her piece has nothing to do with the charges at trial. This is what is known as a nullification defense, which should be offered at trial by defense counsel, under the rules of evidence, not offered by a partisan attorney writing with the imprimateur of a former Justice Department attorney, under the letterhead of Washington's paper of record.

This letter is on the record and I request that you publish it.

Sincerely,

Brent Budowsky

larry johnson doesn't think much of it either...

Washington Post Enables Toensing's Delusions

by Larry C Johnson

Congratulations to Victoria Toensing, former Reagan Administration Justice Department official, for plumbing new depths of delusion and crazed fantasies in her latest Washington Post op-ed. Ms. Toensing's piece--Trial in Error--should have been titled, "I Am Ignorant of Basic Facts".

[...]

[T]he Victoria Toensings of the world seem hell bent on perpetuating the lies and living in the delusional world that it is okay to out an under cover CIA officer during a time of war. While Toensing has the right to be wrong, we ought to ask why a paper with the reputation of the Washington Post is lowering its journalistic standards, ignoring ethics, and enabling the spread of lies. I think the owner of the Washington Post has some "splaining" to do.

spin is one thing... stenography is another... but jury tampering is unconscionable and illegal...

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